Common Core-based ISAT scores improve in St. Charles

Leap in state testing scores at Richmond Intermediate School points to improvement

The 11 elementary schools in St. Charles District 303 saw higher percentages of students exceeding the state's benchmarks on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test this year, according to results released by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Two of the three middle schools also saw a higher number of students meeting or exceeding state standards, with one middle school, Thompson Middle School, keeping its percentage the same as in 2013.

Bell-Graham Elementary School in St. Charles had the highest percentage in the district of students meeting or exceeding the state standard this year, at 87.4 percent, compared with 83.7 percent in 2013. Bell-Graham also had the highest number of students exceeding the standard at 39.4 percent.

This year's test had all Common Core standard-based questions, as opposed to 20 percent on 2013's test.

This year was also the ISAT's last, as the state is switching to a new online testing system, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). It emphasizes Common Core standards.

The state's move from the ISAT exams is what makes Superintendent Don Schlomann hesitant to say the spike in students meeting and exceeding state standards truly points to improvement.

"Our results are significantly better than the state average," he said. "But they don't indicate improvement year to year."

Comparing different third-grade classes from year to year does little to help educators understand their students' improvement, Schlomann said. It's more useful for the district to look at a third grade class' scores one year and then again when they become fourth graders.

For this reason, he believes the state report card results are more useful to parents and the community than the district.

"It tells parents a lot more information, and it's especially helpful for people looking to compare how we do with other communities," he said.

Among the most notable achievements this year is the improvement in scores at Richmond Intermediate School, often considered the worst-performing in the district. ISAT results show 66.4 percent of Richmond students met or exceeded state standards on this year's test, compared with 59.8 percent of its students meeting or exceeding standards in 2013.

In the past year, the number of Richmond students exceeding state standards jumped 8.4 percentage points, from 13.2 percent to 21.6 percent.

The school previously had the lowest percentage of students passing the exam in 2013 and 2012, but this year's performance gave them a slight edge over Anderson Elementary School, which had 66.1 percent of its students meeting or exceeding standards.

"We're very proud of that. There's still a ways to go; teachers and staff there are working hard," Schlomann said. "But we want to give them kudos to the fact they've made significant progress."

The improvement in Richmond's test scores coincides with one of the goals for the school's corrective action plan, which the district was ordered to create as a result of a lawsuit fighting the legality of a 2011 decision to change Davis Elementary into a kindergarten-through-second-grade school and Richmond Elementary into a third-through-fifth-grade school. The lawsuit was prompted by Davis parents' reluctance to send their children to Richmond, a failing school at the time.

A second lawsuit was filed last year, and it sought money for parents who moved their kids to private schools, moved their kids out of the Davis school boundary to avoid the merger or did neither and were forced to have their kids attend Richmond instead of Davis. Schlomann said the case is being appealed.

Though test scores went up, Schlomann said he's particularly pleased with the recent praise he's heard from Richmond parents.

"I hear from parents that they're satisfied with where we are at with Richmond, and that's more of an indication of how we're doing than going up in percentage points," he said.

While more improvement is needed, Schlomann said Richmond's qualities compare with any other school in the district.

"From a community standpoint, people care if their student likes their teacher or if they feel their child is learning," he said. "In that way, it's no different from any other school."